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Weiland continues to rock

Former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts perform at the Spice Lounge on Friday (June 27).

— image credit: Photo Contributed

by
Nicholas Pescod - Nanaimo News Bulletin

posted Jun 24, 2014 at 9:00 AM— updated Jun 25, 2014 at 12:22 PM

Scott Weiland has experienced more than his fair share of lows throughout his career as a rockstar and yet he has always managed to pick the microphone back up even in the darkest of times.

“You have moments where you feel like you’re on top of the world and then there are moments when you fall and it is what you do when you pick yourself up,” Weiland said.

The former Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman, whose history of drug use and arrests is well-recorded, has picked himself up once again, this time with his newly formed band Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts.

“It feels a lot like the feeling I had when I made my very first album with STP,” Weiland said about working with the Wildabouts. “It’s just really exciting to work.”

On Friday (June 27), Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts will be taking the stage in the Harbour City.

“[We are] just very excited to play our new songs as well as our versions that we’ve reworked of STP songs and Velvet Revolver songs,” Weiland said about the upcoming performance at the Spice Lounge.

Originally, Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts began as a five-piece but recently decided to drop down to a four-piece.

“Now there is so much more space between the notes and that space is really important ... it works out a lot better,” Weiland said about the decision to become a quartet.

Weiland and his band are currently working toward their first album, which has yet to be named, that is scheduled to be released around Christmas time.

“It’s definitely a lot more indie sounding than the big riffs that are STP or Velvet Revolver. It’s rock ’n’ roll but it has a modern artistic approach to it,” Weiland explained. “A lot of that is taking a lot of time thinking about what kind of tones to use, what kind of pedals to use. We’re really kinda of leaning towards multi-fuzz boxes and adding octaves to that, like low octaves as far as the riffs go.”

Weiland’s musical career began in 1985 when he helped form what would eventually become Stone Temple Pilots, a band he would stay with on and off for more than 15 years. He also spent time as a member of the supergroup Velvet Revolver.

Weiland explained that as a member of Stone Temple Pilots he was so driven to succeed that he often forgot to stop and enjoy the moment.

“Every time each moment would come up I was always so driven that I would look towards the next marker of success and then I realized at one point after winning the first Grammy that I’d missed a lot of experiences along the way because I was always shooting for the next level,” Weiland said. “I kind of missed a lot of the journey because I was looking ahead. But I got another chance to experience that and relived that with Velvet Revolver.”

The Californian’s departure from Stone Temple Pilots as well as his rifts with Velvet Revolver have been well-documented.

“Until the last part of the last year, we got a long really good. We had a lot in common and it was a lot of fun,” Weiland said about his time with Stone Temple Pilots.

After being a frontman for more than two decades with two hugely successful bands, Weiland, who also has a solo career, knows there is more to being a rock star than meets the eye.

“There is that romanticized version of what being a rock star is and then there is what it really is,” Weiland said. “I felt myself at conflict about that, you know? Holding onto my artistic ideals and yet being pressured by the label and management to deliver hits.”

When Weiland looks back at his career he is more appreciative and grateful for many of the big moments in his career.

“I can honestly say I am very very pleased that I was fortunate enough to win a couple Grammys. That’s a huge thing.”

Weiland also cherishes some of the lighter moments in his career, such as his visit to Walter Reid National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

“That was very emotional time for me and very difficult. I had to kind of take a break in between that time,” Weiland said. “Those kind of things come your way and those are the things you really remember.”

Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts perform at the Spice Lounge on June 27.

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